


Heads Up (Look Alive)

by spacetrek



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, a couple of superheroes hanging out in alien lockup, playing car games and talking about their kids, you know how it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 23:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19119997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacetrek/pseuds/spacetrek
Summary: Sometimes the only catchup time you get is when you're both injured and locked in an alien prison cell.  Life is strange that way.





	Heads Up (Look Alive)

“We could play I Spy.”

“I Spy only works if both parties can see, which I cannot.”

“C’mon, B.”Clark lets his head fall back against the wall with a thump.It hurts, reminding him that he’s still not back to full strength.“I spy with my little eye, something black.”

“My suit.”

“You’re good.”

“Hn.”Bruce rolls his neck and shifts a little.Full strength or not, Clark’s still got enough in him to see and hear pretty well, and plenty to catch Bruce’s grimace and the here-and-gone uptick in his heartbeat. 

“Leg still hurt?”Bruce grunts.“That’s a yes.”

“Wasn’t.”

“Was.”

Bruce grunts again.“How’s your head.”

“It’s okay.Been a while since I’ve had a headache that wasn’t entirely kryptonite-induced.”

“Powers?”

“A little better—their magic’s pretty temporary stuff.”Clark stretches out as much as he can in the enclosed space.“Would be better if I could get some sun.”

“Sadly the Vorkons did not factor in that need when they built this cell.”

“Probably the opposite,”Clark agrees.“So, we’re stuck on an alien world and locked in a box, my powers are on the fritz, and you’ve got a bum leg.”

“Must be Tuesday.”Bruce’s voice betrays the upward quirk of his mouth.

“Must be.Got a plan?”

"I might.”

Clark knows that’s Batman for “Yes, but I’m not finished with it yet,” so he sighs and stretches out a little more.

“Clark.”

“Bruce.”

“You’re taking up a lot of room.”

“You asking me to get off your side?” 

Bruce rolls his eyes.Clark grins and scoots forward until he’s solidly on Bruce’s side, shoulders pressed together.

“Now you’re distracting me.”

“I’ve seen you come up with plans upside-down and halfway to being eaten by unidentified space blobs.”

“That was one time, and those were suboptimal conditions.” 

“Were they.”Clark tips his head back again, careful not to thump it so hard this time.The wall is cold and feels good against his headache.“How have you been?”

A few moments of silence that feel somehow incredulous.Clark almost thinks Bruce isn’t going to answer, then: “How have I _been_?”

“I haven’t seen you in almost two weeks, Bruce.You cancelled our interview last Thursday—thanks for that, by the way; Perry flipped his lid.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

“Yeah, but we had to scramble to get another quote about the metro project, and you were the only one of the main donors who’d volunteered to talk.”

“Hn.I was busy.”

“Doing what?” 

Another silence.This one feels almost sheepish.

“Was it kid-related.”

“Mm.”

“That’s a yes.”

“That's a maybe, at best.”

“No, that was definitely a yes.”Clark tips his head a little so he can look at Bruce without moving away from the wall.  Not that it matters—Bruce has closed his eyes behind the cowl, and he looks as comfortable as he’s going to get with several strained muscles.“Was it Damian-related?”

“Are we playing Twenty Questions now.”

“Was it Damian and possibly also school-related?”

“For God’s sake, Clark.”Bruce’s eyes are open, and he’s glaring halfheartedly. 

“That sucks,”Clark offers, responding to Bruce’s unspoken assent.

“It does.”It’s Bruce’s turn to thump his head against the wall.“He left the grounds to go for a walk during lunch and got caught up stopping a mugging.”His voice has taken on a little of the long-suffering tone that Clark normally hears from Alfred. “He ripped his uniform and missed his entire math class.I thought the headmaster was going to burst a blood vessel over the phone.”

“Have you considered sending him to a public school?”

“Public school teachers are criminally underpaid in general; I wouldn’t add keeping up with Damian to their workload.”

“Fair enough.”Clark stretches a little.Excepting the monster of a bruise on his left thigh, courtesy of the biggest and most unfortunately magic-imbued quarterstaff he’s ever seen in his life, he’s not in bad shape, all things considered.Small mercies.

“Status?”Bruce asks, because Bruce is a bastard who can’t bring himself to come right out and ask how someone is doing.

“Good enough for government work.”

Deadpan: “That’s terrible.”

“Eyup.”Clark stretches again, knocking Bruce with his elbow.“How’s that plan coming?”

“It’s ninety-nine percent finished.Seventy-eight percent chance of success, accounting for most variables.”

“What’s the sticking point?”

“The door.”

“Ah.” 

They’re still pondering this impediment when something tugs at Clark’s awareness.He has to sit up straight, strain a little, but he figures it out quickly enough.

Bruce is leaning forward, attentive.“What is it?”

“Somebody’s coming.”

Bruce smiles.It’s Batman’s smile, all teeth and belligerence.  “Think they’ll open the door for us?”

Clark’s pretty sure Bruce can hear that their captors have stopped outside their door, and definitely sure he can hear the noisy conversation happening one solid door and a few feet away, but he answers anyway.“I think they might.”

Bruce has gone limp, as if unconscious or asleep, but Clark can see the way his arms and good leg are coiled beneath his body, ready to propel him toward the first unlucky Vorkon to enter their cell.“Do you think you can get us up to the roof?”

Clark pushes at the air, feels it respond, if a little shakily.“Probably.Think they’ll let us get that far?”

A clink and scratch of heavy bolts at the door.  Another sharp smile that Clark answers with one of his own. “I think they might.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is short and has no real plot but here it is. Also I was homeschooled all the way to college and I know very little about how public or private schools work, but schooling in Gotham is probably wild no matter what you do.
> 
> Title is from "Timebomb" by Walk the Moon


End file.
